Archive for August, 2014

Back in 1921, a missionary couple named David and Svea Flood went with their two-year-old son from Sweden to the heart of Africa-to what was then called the Belgian Congo. They met up with another young Scandinavian couple, the Erickson’s, and the four of them sought God for direction. In those days of much tenderness and devotion and sacrifice, they felt led by the Lord to set out from the main mission station and take the gospel to a remote area.

This was a huge step of faith. At the village of N’dolera near Lemera, they were rebuffed by the chief, who would not let them enter his town for fear of alienating the local gods. The two couples opted to go half a mile up the slope and build their own mud huts.

They prayed for a spiritual breakthrough, but there was none. The only contact with the villagers was a young boy, who was allowed to sell them chickens and eggs twice a week. Svea Flood-a tiny woman only four feet, eight inches tall-decided that if this was the only African she could talk to, she would try to lead the boy to Jesus. And in fact, she succeeded. But there were no other encouragements. Meanwhile, malaria continued to strike one member of the little band after another. In time the Erickson’s decided they had had enough suffering and left to return to the central mission station. David and Svea Flood remained near N’dolera to go on alone. Then, of all things, Svea found herself pregnant in the middle of the primitive wilderness. When the time came for her to give birth, the village chief softened enough to allow a midwife to help her. A little girl was born, whom they named Aina. The delivery, however, was exhausting, and Svea Flood was already weak from bouts of malaria. The birth process was a heavy blow to her stamina. She lasted only another seventeen days.

Inside David Flood, something snapped in that moment. He dug a crude grave, buried his twenty-seven-year-old wife, and then took his children back down the mountain to the mission station. Giving his newborn daughter to the Erickson’s, he snarled, “I’m going back to Sweden. I’ve lost my wife, and I obviously can’t take care of this baby. God has ruined my life.” With that, he headed for the port, rejecting not only his calling, but God himself. Within eight months both the Erickson’s were stricken with a mysterious malady and died within days of each other. The baby was then turned over to some American missionaries, who adjusted her Swedish name to “Aggie” and eventually brought her back to the United States at age three.

This family loved the little girl and was afraid that if they tried to return to Africa, some legal obstacle might separate her from them. So they decided to stay in their home country and switch from missionary work to pastoral ministry. And that is how Aggie grew up in South Dakota. As a young woman, she attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis. There she met and married a young man named Dewey Hurst.

Years passed. The Hurst’s enjoyed a fruitful Ministry. Aggie gave birth first to a daughter, then a son. In time her husband became president of a Christian college in the Seattle area, and Aggie was intrigued to find so much Scandinavian heritage there. One day a Swedish religious magazine appeared in her mailbox. She had no idea who had sent it, and of course she couldn’t read the words. But as she turned the pages, all of a sudden a photo stopped her cold. There in a primitive setting was a grave with a white cross-and on the cross were the words SVEA FLOOD. Aggie jumped in her car and went straight for a college faculty member who, she knew, could translate the article. “What does this say?” she demanded. The instructor summarized the story: It was about missionaries who had come to N’dolera long ago … the birth of a white baby … the death of the young mother … the one little African boy who had been led to Christ … and how, after the whites had all left, the boy had grown up and finally persuaded the chief to let him build a school in the village. The article said that gradually he won all his students to Christ… the children led their parents to Christ… even the chief had become a Christian. Today there were six hundred Christian believers in that one village…. All because of the sacrifice of David and Svea Flood. For the Hursts’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, the college presented them with the gift of a vacation to Sweden.

There Aggie sought to find her real father. An old man now, David Flood had remarried, fathered four more children, and generally dissipated his life with alcohol. He had recently suffered a stroke. Still bitter, he had one rule in his family: “Never mention the name of God- because God took everything from me. After an emotional reunion with her half brothers and half sister, Aggie brought up the subject of seeing her father. The others hesitated. “You can talk to him,” they replied, “even though he’s very ill now. But you need to know that whenever he hears the name of God, he flies into a rage. Aggie was not to be deterred. She walked into the squalid apartment, with liquor bottles everywhere, and approached the seventy-three-year-old man lying in a rumpled bed. “Papa~” she said tentatively. He turned and began to cry. “Aina,” he said. “I never meant to give you away.” “It’s all right, Papa,” she replied, taking him gently in her arms. “God took care of me.” The man instantly stiffened. The tears stopped. “God forgot all of us. Our lives have been like this because of Him.” He turned his face back to the wall. Aggie stroked his face and then continued,

undaunted. “Papa, I’ve got a little story to tell you, and it’s a true one. You didn’t go to Africa in vain. Mama didn’t die in vain. The little boy you won to the Lord grew up to win that whole village to Jesus Christ. The one seed you planted just kept growing and growing. Today there are six hundred African people serving the Lord because you were faithful to the call of God in your life. … Papa, Jesus loves you. He has never hated you.” The old man turned back to look into his daughter’s eyes. His body relaxed. He began to talk. And by the end of the afternoon, he had come back to the God he had resented for so many decades. Over the next few days, father and daughter enjoyed warm moments together. Aggie and her husband soon had to return to America-and within a few weeks, David Flood had gone into eternity.

A few years later, the Hurst’s were attending a high-level evangelism conference in London, England, when a report was given from the former Belgian Congo now named Zaire. The superintendent of the national church, Ruhigita Ndagora, representing some 110,000 baptized believers, spoke eloquently of the gospel’s spread in his nation. Aggie could not help going to ask Pastor Ndagora afterward if he had ever heard of David and Svea Flood. “Yes, madam,” the man replied in French, his words then being translated into English. “It was Svea Flood who led me to Jesus Christ. I was the boy who brought food to your parents before you were born. In fact, to this day your mother’s grave and her memory are honored by all of us.” He embraced her in a long, sobbing hug. Then he continued, “You must come to Africa to see, because your mother is the most famous person in our history.”

Pastor Ndagora had made a huge difference in the Congo. After rising to the important post as Legal Representative of the 8th CEPZA (Pentecostal Community of Zaire), eventually he was instrumental in the establishment of a hospital in Lemera officially named the Hospital Lemera. The Administrator of the hospital was Miss Ingegerd Rooth who first worked as a nurse and then returned to Sweden to finish her medical training and finally returned to work as physician in charge of the hospital. She was highly respected and loved by all who passed near her. She really had a lot of friends at the hospital and in the entire community. The first black physicians among many others include Runyambo, Musafiri and Ndombe.

The Swedish Free Mission signed a contract with the Congolese government to ensure that each clinic would be responsible for Swedish Nursing Training.

At the request of Reverend Ruhigita Ndagora, the Swedish International Agency Development granted the money to build more rooms and a hydro electric dam. This dam provided electricity and water for Lemera Hospital and residents of Lemera.

In time, Aggie Hurst and her husband traveled to Lemera and were welcomed by cheering throngs of villagers. She even met the man who had been hired by her father many years before to carry her back down the mountain in a hammock-cradle. The most dramatic moment, of course, was when Reverend Pastor Ruhigita Ndagora escorted Aggie to see her mother’s white cross for herself. She knelt in the soil to pray and give thanks. Later that day, in the church, the pastor read from John 12:24: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” He then followed with Psalm 126:5: “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.”

Below is the Temple Mount as viewed from the Mount of Olives, note the graves in the foreground.

Abraham was directed by God to take his son Isaac, to the land of Moriah, and there to offer him for a burnt offering upon a mountain which God would show him. This land is mentioned only here, and there is little to guide us in trying to identify it. Much later the name of Moriah is affixed to the mount on which Solomon’s Temple was built, possibly associating it with the sacrifice of Isaac. Abraham journeyed from the land of the Philistines, and on the 3rd day he saw the place afar off. This naturally suggests some prominent mountain farther North than Jerusalem. The description could hardly apply to Jerusalem in any case, as it could not be seen “afar off” by one approaching either from the South or the West.

The mountains associated with Jerusalem today are Mount Ophen, Mount Zion and Mount Moriah. I believe Mount Ophen is actually part of Mount Moriah which rises to 2,549 feet. The Temple Mount sets at 2,428 feet. I believe the entire City of David was built on the lowest part of Mount Moriah. Mount Zion stands at 2,533 feet and to the east of Jerusalem across the Kidron Valley lies the Mount of Olives rising 2,739 feet. Most translations say the Temple was built “on” Mount Moriah. The King James Version says “in” Mount Moriah. Mount or “har” in Hebrew can mean mountain, hill or hill country.

Jesus ascended into Heaven from the Mount of Olives. Even before Solomon the Mount of Olives was used as a Jewish burial place. There are more than 150,000 graves there today. When King David wrote about the Shadow of the Valley of Death he was writing about the Kidron Valley. Below is a photo of the Kidron Valley looking south with the Temple mount on the right and the Mount of Olives on the left. The tomb in the valley with the pointed top is the tomb of Absalom, David’s third son.

It was Mount Zion where the Tabernacle rested and David in times of stress would look up from the City of David and see the place where the Ark rested. Seeing the Tabernacle would give David the peace to compose and sing inspiring psalms of faith. “From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in thy Tabernacle forever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.” Psalm 61:2-4

A hundred and fifty years ago, Mount Zion was believed to be the location of the City of David. Even 100 years ago it was still debated. I think there is no argument today that the City of David was located to the south of the Temple Mount. There are various claims that David’s Palace has been found but this is disputed. When Jesus spoke of the Temple and said that not one stone would be left upon another, He gave an accurate description. So complete was the destruction of the Temple and the City of David that not one piece of evidence was found to prove that David ever existed until The Tel Dan Tablet was discovered in Northern Israel in 1994. It is pictured below and mentions “The House of David.”

The Roman Fort built by King Herod around 19 BC but not completely finished until long after his death was named for Mark Anthony, Herod’s friend and Cleopatra’s boyfriend. Fort Antonia was described by Josephus as being like a city with large areas for troop parades. A legion of troops and support personnel totaling 10,000 personnel were housed there. Like all major fortresses, Josephus describes Fort Antonia as being built over a “rock” the highest point of the area. We are to believe that this mighty fortress occupied a tiny space on the Temple Mount next to the Jewish Temple? I believe the image below fairly accurately depicts the Antonio Fort.

Over a thousand years after Abraham was to sacrifice Isaac, Solomon built the Temple on the spot that had been the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. A threshing floor was a hard surface where sheaves where placed and then tread by oxen and cattle to loosen the edible part of cereal grain from the inedible chaff that surrounds it. Then winnowing forks were used to throw the mixture into the air so the wind could blow away the chaff, leaving only the good grain on the floor.

Both the Old and New Testaments refer to the threshing floor as a symbol of judgment. Hosea prophesied that because Israel had repeatedly turned from God to false idols, His judgment upon them would scatter them to the winds as the chaff from the threshing floor. “Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window” (Hosea 9:2). As you know, Israel ceased to exist in 586 BC even though there were Jews living in the land later under Greek and Roman rule. It was 2,534 years later when the Jews reclaimed the Promised Land in 1948.

King Solomon built the Temple on the site of the threshing floor of Ornan which was in the City of David. The Temple Mount was never in the City of David. Josephus also tells us that the Antonia Fortress was built on a rock 25 meters above the Temple Mount floor platform. In simple terms, that means the fort floor was 82 feet higher than the Temple floor. That’s eight stories higher. The height of the Western Wall is 19 meters or 62 feet. That would put the floor of the Temple 20 feet lower than the bottom of the Western Wall once referred to as the Wailing Wall. It makes sense to me that Ornan would pick a low spot for his threshing floor. The workers would not have to carry wheat up the hill and the oxen would not have to climb the equivalent of eight stories to trample the wheat. An additional clue that the Temple was lower than the Fort is the fact that the Commander of Antonia came down to the Temple when Paul caused turmoil there.

American archaeologist and author, the late Professor Dr. Ernest L. Martin, conducted archaeology work in East Jerusalem before writing his book “The Temples that Jerusalem Forgot,” published in 1999 Dr. Martin claimed that Muslim sacred places, Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of Rock are not built on top of the Temple Mount ruins. Several other historians in the past have reached similar conclusions that the 45-acre landmass known as Haram al-Sharif to the Muslim world since 638 AD – is in fact a Roman fortress built by King Herod. Furthermore, the Jewish holy Wailing Wall (the Western Wall) had never been part of the first or second Temples. In the early 1970s, Professor Benjamin Mazar, former President of Hebrew University, confirmed that Haram al-Sharif was indeed a Roman fortress.

According to Dr. Martin, the Hebrew Temples were built south of the fort over Gihon Spring. Martin also explained how Haram al-Sharif was comparable in size and water supply to other Roman fortresses built to guard Roman occupied cities. I like the aerial photo below. Just above the center of the bottom of the photo the lower part of Mount Moriah begins. This area along the Kidron Valley was the City of David reaching almost to the Temple Mount. You can judge that much of this part of the Mount is about 80 feet or eight stories below the floor of the Temple Mount. The topography has surely changed some since David’s time 3,000 years ago.

Josephus in his book ‘The War of Jews’ quoted Jewish rebel commander at Masada in 73 AD saying: “Where is this city that was believed to have God himself inhabiting therein? It is now demolished to the very foundations, and hath nothing left but that monument of it preserved; I mean the camp of those that hath destroyed it, which still dwells upon its ruins”.

Professor George Wesley Buchanan, a United Methodist minister, wrote a research article entitled Misunderstanding about Temple Mount, published by the Washington Report (August 2011). “In biblical times the Haram was not a sacred place. Instead it was the place that Orthodox Jews considered defiled and the most despised place in the world. Within these walls were found no remnants of any of the earlier Temples but rather an image of Mars, the Roman god of war,” wrote Buchanan.

“After two violent wars with Rome, the City of David was so completely destroyed that it could not be recognized as a city. The Roman emperor Hadrian decreed that it would be used as an area where the Upper City could dump trash and garbage. It continued in that condition for hundreds of years,” wrote Buchanan. The Muslim Arab army, which took control of Jerusalem in 638, observed the City of David being used as a city garbage dump.

I am pleased that serious scholars are researching facts rather than perpetuating old wives’ tales. For all of my life people have believed that the Mosque would have to be destroyed before the Hebrew Temple could be rebuilt. What does it say when Christians and Jews don’t even know where the Holy Temple was? If Josephus was correct, I would look for the site 25 meters or 82 feet below the so-called Temple Mount. Perhaps even lower depending on the height of the foundation. Josephus was meticulous in his research and writing.

Most Christians and Jews also don’t know where Abraham came from. I am absolutely positive It was not the Ur halfway between Baghdâd and the Persian Gulf, but that is a story for another time.

While Moses was in the wilderness near Mount Sinai in Saudi Arabia, God commanded him to build the Ark. The Apostle Paul spent three years in the same area after his conversion on the Road to Damascus. It was Constantine’s mother, Queen Helena who mistakenly placed Mount Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Paul wrote in Galatians, “For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.” Paul wrote almost 25% of the New Testament and was clearly the most traveled and hardest working apostle. While Paul did not make a big issue about how he became so knowledgeable, it is clear to me that he was taught directly by God, perhaps on the Holy Mountain. He did not get his understanding from teachings by Jewish Scholars although he was an expert in all the ways of the Jews.

This is also the area where Moses fled to from Egypt and married the daughter of the Priest of Median and where he saw the burning bush where God first spoke to him.

The Ark was constructed of acacia wood and plated with pure gold, inside and out. On the bottom, four gold rings were attached, through which two acacia wood poles plated in gold were placed so the family of Kehath, of the tribe of Levi, could safely carry the Ark. The Ark was approximately 45 inches long by 27 inches in height and width. Two pure gold sculpted Cherubs faced one another on the top of the Ark. The top or lid of the Ark was called the Mercy Seat from whence God communicated with His people. It was the seat of mercy much like a county Courthouse is the County Seat or seat of power as opposed to a place to sit down. The Tablets of the Ten Commandments which were broken by Moses and then restored by God were placed in the Ark by Moses himself.

Acacia trees would have been one of the few types of trees growing in the wilderness. There are several species of acacia growing in Arabia today. In addition, acacia wood is dense and extremely strong, making it a great option for any type of enduring wooden construction. It is resistant to decay because the tree deposits many waste substances in the heartwood which serve as preservatives and render the wood unpalatable to insects and making the wood dense and difficult to be penetrated by water and other decay agents.

This is a table made of acacia wood. Perhaps it will last at least a thousand years as the Ark did from its creation until the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians.

The Ark was built by Bezalel, son of Uri, son of Hur, who constructed the entire Tabernacle – the portable Temple used in the desert and during the conquest of the land of Israel. The Tabernacle was the resting place for the Ark, and also contained other vessels that were used in the physical worship of God. The Ark was used in the desert and in Israel proper for a number of spiritual and pragmatic purposes. Practically, God used the Ark as an indicator of when he wanted the nation to travel, and when to stop. In the traveling formation in the desert, the Ark was carried 2000 cubits ahead of the nation. Below is a representation of the Tabernacle with an acacia tree in front.

Spiritually, the Ark was the manifestation of God’s physical presence on earth. When God spoke with Moses in the desert, he did so from between the two Cherubs. Once the Ark was moved into the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle, and later in the Temple, it was accessible only once a year, and then, only by one person. On Yom Kippur, the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies to ask forgiveness for himself and for all the nation of Israel.

The holiness of the Ark made it dangerous to those who came in contact with it. When Nadav and Avihu, the sons of Aaron, brought a foreign flame to offer a sacrifice in the Tabernacle, they were devoured by a fire that emanated “from the Lord.” During the saga of the capture of the Ark by the Philistines, numerous people, including some who merely looked at the Ark, were killed by its power. Similarly, the Priests who served in the Tabernacle and Temple were told that viewing the Ark at an improper time would result in immediate death.

The Ark accompanied the Jews throughout their time in the desert, traveling with them and accompanying them to their wars with Emor and Midian. When the Jews crossed into the land of Canaan, the waters of the Jordan River miraculously split as the bearers of the Ark arrived. Throughout their conquest of the land, the Jews were accompanied by the Ark. The most dramatic demonstration of its power comes when the Jews breached the walls of Jericho merely by circling them, blowing horns and carrying the Ark.

After the conquest was completed, the Ark, and the entire Tabernacle, were set up in Shiloh . There they remained until the battles of the Jews with the Philistines during the Priesthood of Eli. The Jews, after suffering a defeat at the Philistines’ hands, took the Ark from Shiloh to Even-Ezer in hopes of winning the next battle. But the Jews were routed, and the Ark was captured by the Philistines. Back in Shiloh, Eli, the High Priest, immediately died upon hearing the news.

The Philistines took the Ark back to Ashdod, their capital city in the south of Canaan, where they placed it in the temple of their god Dagon. The next day, however, they found the idol fallen on its face. After replacing the statue, they found it the next day decapitated, with only its trunk remaining, and soon afterward, the entire city of Ashdod was struck with a plague. The Philistines moved the Ark to the city of Gath, and from there to Ekron, but whatever city the Ark was in, the inhabitants were struck with plague. After seven months, the Philistines decided to send the Ark back to the Israelites, and accompanied it with expensive gifts.

King Solomon built the Holy Temple and summoned the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families to Jerusalem. to bring up the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Zion, the City of David. And all the Israelites came together to the king at the time of the festival in the seventh month.

When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites took up the ark, and they brought up the ark and the tent of meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The Levitical priests carried them up; and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted.

The priests then brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim. The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and covered the ark and its carrying poles. These poles were so long that their ends, extending from the ark, could be seen from in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today. There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.

The priests then withdrew from the Holy Place. All the priests who were there had consecrated themselves, regardless of their divisions. All the Levites who were musicians—Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang:

“He is good;
his love endures forever.”
Then the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.

The Ark remained in the Temple until its destruction at the hand of the Babylonian empire, led by King Nebuchadnezzar. The stories are endless about where the Ark was taken or hidden before or after the Temple was destroyed. It is unlikely that the Babylonians took it, as they did the other vessels of the Temple, because the detailed lists of what they took make no mention of the Ark. According to some sources, Josiah, one of the final kings to reign in the First Temple period, learned of the impending invasion of the Babylonians and hid the Ark. Perhaps in a hole dug under the wood storehouse on the Temple Mount. Another account says that Solomon foresaw the eventual destruction of the Temple, and set aside a cave near the Dead Sea, in which Josiah eventually hid the Ark.

One of the most fascinating possibilities is advanced by Ethiopian Christians who claim that they have the Ark today. In Axum, Ethiopia, it is widely believed that the Ark is currently being held in the Church of Saint Mary of Zion, guarded by a monk known as the “Keeper of the Ark,” who claims to have it in his possession. According to the Axum Christian community, they acquired the Ark during the reign of Solomon, when his son Menelik, whose mother was the Queen of Sheba, stole the Ark after a visit to Jerusalem. While in the not-so-distant past the “Ark” has been brought out for Christian holidays, its keeper has not done so for several years due to the tumultuous political situation in the country. The claim has thus been impossible to verify, for no one but the monk is allowed inside.

Another claim is that of archaeologist Leen Ritmeyer, who conducted research on the Temple Mount and inside the Dome of the Rock. He claims to have found the spot on the Mount where the Holy of Holies was located during the First Temple period. In the precise center of that spot is a section of bedrock cut out in dimensions that may match those of the Ark. Since I do not believe the Temple was built on the so-called Temple Mount, I discount this story. I will explain why the Temple Mount is not the Temple Mount in a later posting and will also tell you where the Temple was built and why even the foundation of the Temple was completely destroyed.

I promised I would tell you everything you need to know about the Ark of the Covenant. The information comes from the Great Prophet Jeremiah who saw the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple. He also witnessed the death of Josiah, the last devout King of Israel. Jeremiah loved King Josiah dearly and knew what his death meant. Soon afterward, the people reverted to idolatry. Jeremiah strove hard to stem the tide of spiritual depravity which was threatening to undermine their high moral standards. One of the prophet’s famous sayings is the one in which he points out that wisdom, might, and riches, are nothing compared to the happiness that man achieves through real knowledge and understanding of the ways of God: “Thus saith the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might; let not the rich man glory in his riches. But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord Who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”

Jeremiah prophesied about the Babylonian threat and warned the Jews of the terrible devastation they would incur if they did not stop worshiping idols and mistreating each other. But his gloomy prophecies, recorded in the Book of Jeremiah, went largely unheeded by the Jews, who mocked and persecuted him. Some eighteen years before the destruction of the Temple, Jeremiah was imprisoned by King Jehoiakim for his persistent prophecies foretelling the fall of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah summoned his devoted disciple, Baruch ben Neriah, and dictated to him a heart-rending and graphic warning of the coming doom; the prophecy Baruch wrote down for Jeremiah and read in the Temple is contained in the Book of Lamentations in the Holy Bible. The Temple was destroyed in 586 BC.

Here is what Jeremiah wrote about the Ark and his prophecy for the Ark and the future of Israel as recorded in The Book of Jeremiah Chapter 3:

“Return, faithless people,” declares the Lord, “for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land,” declares the Lord, “people will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the Lord, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. In those days the people of Judah will join the people of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance.

“I myself said,

“‘How gladly would I treat you like my children
and give you a pleasant land,
the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.’
I thought you would call me ‘Father’
and not turn away from following me.
But like a woman unfaithful to her husband,
so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,”
declares the Lord.
A cry is heard on the barren heights,
the weeping and pleading of the people of Israel,
because they have perverted their ways
and have forgotten the Lord their God.
“Return, faithless people;
I will cure you of backsliding.”
“Yes, we will come to you,
for you are the Lord our God.
Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills
and mountains is a deception;
surely in the Lord our God
is the salvation of Israel.
From our youth shameful gods have consumed
the fruits of our ancestors’ labor—
their flocks and herds,
their sons and daughters.
Let us lie down in our shame,
and let our disgrace cover us.
We have sinned against the Lord our God,
both we and our ancestors;
from our youth till this day
we have not obeyed the Lord our God.”

The Ark was the Throne of God; as it set in the Tabernacle on Mount Zion it gave King David peace as he could look up to it from the City of David. Jeremiah said The Ark would be forgotten as Jerusalem becomes The Throne of God and the Seat of His Government. Jerusalem will not be trampled down by gentiles forever. One glorious day Jerusalem will once again become that shining city on the Mountains of Moriah.

UPDATE: Carter recently published a call for the international community to recognize Hamas as a legitimate political actor in the Middle East, cheering the terrorists and angering Israel’s supporters.

Now, according to a report from Breitbart, retired Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz says that Carter’s piece could be interpreted as “recruitment” for Hamas, which is an officially designated Foreign Terrorist Organization under U.S. law. If that is the case and Carter is found to have provided “material support” to Hamas, he could be found guilty of a felony.

The depth of Carter’s anti-Israel prejudice was already on display eight-years ago when he insisted that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank “perpetrates even worse instances of apartness, or apartheid, than we witnessed even in South Africa.” You probably never heard of his book, “Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid.” I just checked Amazon and it’s ranked 652,787th.

I will not guarantee but I’m pretty sure Jimmy Carter can read. He has written and spoke in support of Hamas, so surely he has read the Hamas Charter issued on August 18, 1988. The Charter identified Hamas as the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine and declares its members to be Muslims who “fear God and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors.” The charter states that “our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious” and calls for the creation of an Islamic state in Palestine in place of Israel and the Palestinian Territories and the obliteration or dissolution of Israel.

If you have been reading my various posts in the past you know that several members of the Muslim Brotherhood occupy high ranking positions in the Obama Administration including highly sensitive positions. You will also remember Obama’s eagerness to give F-16’s and Abrams Tanks to the Muslim Brotherhood. I will briefly include some of the Hamas Charter:

The Preamble to the Charter states: ″Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.″

Article 8 The Hamas document reiterates the Muslim Brotherhood’s slogan of “Allah is its goal, the Prophet is the model, the Qur’an its constitution, jihad its path, and death for the sake of Allah its most sublime belief.”

Article 13 There is no negotiated settlement possible. Jihad is the only answer.

Article 14 The liberation of Palestine is the personal duty of every Palestinian.

Article 20 Calls for action “by the people as a single body” against “a vicious enemy which acts in a way similar to Nazism, making no differentiation between man and woman, between children and old people.”

Jimmy Carter’s assertions would probably be quickly dismissed as lunacy even by the Democrat controlled news agencies if it were not for the fact that Carter is a former President of the United States.

To make Carter’s views seem even more radical, the Israeli military just captured a Hamas Manual on Urban Warfare called, “Introduction to City War.” The manual extols the benefit that can be gained by civilian deaths and openly acknowledges that Israel will do everything it can to avoid them. The Cover shows images of militants wielding rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons. It further brags about the propaganda value of the deaths of innocent women and children. The destruction of civilian homes is especially good for Hamas as it increases the hatred of the citizens toward Israel and increases their support for Hamas.

The manual, which came from the Shuja’iya Brigade of Hamas’ military wing, also explained how heavily populated urban areas — called “pockets of resistance” — make operations for the IDF difficult because Israeli soldiers try very hard not to harm civilians.

Any legitimate observer knows that Hamas exploits civilians as human shields but steadfastly refuses to report about it. Hamas has even used UN facilities to store rockets and missiles. Meanwhile, the UN has formally condemned Israel scores of times and almost every nation is lined up against the tiny country.

Israel is known throughout Islam as “Little Satan” and the United States is called “Big Satan.” Israel has support from the American People and would like to have support from the U.S. government but they don’t need it. Israel has support from God and will be saved in the end. God will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel. You have been warned.

Has Harvard abandoned its Christian roots like many other universities?

Harvard was founded by Puritans as a Seminary for training clergy for the new commonwealth, a “church in the wilderness.” Harvard was formed in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was initially called “New College” or “the college at New Towne”. In 1638 the school received a printing press—the only press in North America.

In 1639, the college was renamed Harvard College after clergyman John Harvard, a University of Cambridge alumnus who had willed the new school £779 pounds sterling and his library of some 400 books.

Henry Dunster, the college’s first president, was a Baptist who abandoned Puritanism in favor of the Baptist faith in 1654. Dunster’s conflict with the colony’s magistrates began when he failed to have his infant son baptized, believing, as a newly converted Baptist, that only adults should be baptized. Efforts to restore Dunster to Puritan orthodoxy failed, and his apostasy proved untenable to colony leaders who had entrusted him, in his job as Harvard’s president, to uphold the colony’s religious mission. Thus, he represented a threat to the stability of society. Dunster exiled himself in 1654 and moved to nearby Plymouth Colony, where he died in 1658.

In 1692, the leading Puritan divine Increase Mather became president of Harvard. One of his acts was replacing pagan classics with books by Christian authors in ethics classes, and maintaining a high standard of discipline. The Harvard “Lawes” of 1642 and the “Harvard College Laws of 1700” testify to its original high level of discipline. Students were required to observe rules of pious decorum inconceivable in the 19th century, and ultimately to prove their fitness for the bachelor’s degree by showing that they could ‘read the original of the Old and New Testament into the Latin tongue, and resolve them logically.’

By the 1690s, liberal, anti-Calvinist influences began to infiltrate the governing body of the college. And by 1701, Harvard’s liberal tendencies had become so pronounced that a new orthodox college was founded at New Haven, Connecticut, which became Yale University. All the founders of Yale were Harvard graduates in the Connecticut Valley or on Long Island Sound.

On October 28, 1707, John Leverett became President of Harvard. This was the first time that a layman and a liberal was elected President. Although Leverett instituted no changes in the curriculum, his liberal policies began to be reflected in student behavior. He wrote in his own diary in 1717 that the Faculty was having trouble with “profane swearing,” “riotous Actions” and “bringing Cards into the College.” Many college clubs were founded by students, which encouraged questionable behavior.

By 1800, the liberal seed, first sown by Leverett, became the full-blown fruit of Unitarianism, which rejected the Trinity, rejected the divinity of Christ, and rejected all the tenets of Calvinism. The final battle that ended the ongoing war between the orthodox and Unitarians took place in 1805 when Reverend Henry Ware, a Unitarian minister, was elected Hollis Professor of Divinity. Thus the theological department of New England’s oldest university went Unitarian and became open enemies of Calvinism, setting Harvard on a secular course that would become increasingly non-Christian.

The distaste that Harvard liberals today show toward Christian fundamentalism is a continuation of their war against Trinitarian orthodoxy. It should be noted that Secular Humanism is a direct outgrowth of Harvard’s Unitarian philosophy.

Unitarianism is not a revealed religion. It is a social movement based on the notion that man is basically good and morally perfectible, and that all that is needed to achieve this moral utopia is a good secular education. And that is why the Unitarians became the major force in the public school movement.

It should also be noted that Unitarian liberalism is at the core of American political liberalism, for the chief practice of Unitarians was and still is social political activism based on the belief that government could solve all of our problems. And that’s the liberal political philosophy that prevails today.

This year Harvard was scheduled to host an anti-Christian Satanic Black Mass on campus but after widespread condemnation from religious and educational leaders, it was cancelled.